


mistletoe? do you mean mistle[redacted]?

by sunset_swerved



Series: sonsetcurve’s 12 days of jatpmas [3]
Category: Julie and The Phantoms (TV)
Genre: Christmas challenge!, Less than great family dynamics mentioned, M/M, Mistletoe, reggie is a disaster, teenage runaway
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-17
Updated: 2020-12-17
Packaged: 2021-03-11 04:22:27
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,976
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28119144
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sunset_swerved/pseuds/sunset_swerved
Summary: “Jingle bells, Batman smells, Robin laid an egg,” Reggie sang as he started pulling the tangle of string lights and misc decorations he had snuck into the tote out of it and laid them around him. “Something something something, jingle all the way.”“I don’t think those are the lyrics.”Reggie looked up from a particularly knotted knot and smiled at the figure standing in the doorway. “Oh hey Luke,” he said, before his own words caught up to him. “Wait Luke! No! You can’t be here!”
Relationships: Luke Patterson/Reggie (Julie and The Phantoms)
Series: sonsetcurve’s 12 days of jatpmas [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2056728
Comments: 8
Kudos: 147





	mistletoe? do you mean mistle[redacted]?

**Author's Note:**

> Day 3 for sonsetcurve’s jatp holiday challenge! Honestly, I’m super proud of this one. Enjoy!

Reggie Peters was on a mission.

That mission, should he choose to accept it (but wait, didn’t he  _ already _ accept it because it was his mission? Huh.) was to give Luke the absolute  _ best _ Christmas ever.

The sixteen year old hummed a Christmas carol to himself as struggled to lug an oversized Rubbermaid tub full of Christmas decorations his parents wouldn’t notice were gone into Bobby’s garage. The lights were off and there wasn’t any sad music playing, so he knew for sure that Luke was out so he let himself in.

“Whoops,” he said as the tote slipped out of his hands  _ probably _ a little  _ to _ close to Alex’s drum kit, if the snapping of his hi hat was anything to go by. Shrugging, Reggie grabbed one end of the tote and started pulling it away.

It took him a couple of minutes, not being able to lift it again (honestly he didn’t really know how he  _ got _ it there in the first place what had his mom put in there,  _ rocks _ ?? How had he not noticed????) and to scoot it over their mess of wires that they had just left where they were after their most recent band rehearsal.

Luke, you see, was one of Reggie’s absolute best friends in the entire world, along with the rest of their band (Sunset Curve, tell your friends - who was he telling? Ah well.) He had been with them whenever something bad happened (like whenever Bobby’s mom forgot about him or Alex’s dad acted like he didn’t exist or whenever Reggie’s parents told him that they wished he wasn’t the way he was while fighting with each other) Reggie thought it was time to return the favor after Luke came to the studio two days ago and set up shop as if he was going to be living there.

He knew that Luke didn’t have the most supportive environment at home. His parents had been on his case ever since Luke started to take Sunset Curve more seriously. To him, there was no point in school or homework when they were going to be  _ big _ , and Reggie tended to agree with him (not like he was all that good in school anyway, but the sentiment still stood.) However, Reggie  _ did _ know that Mr. and Mrs. Patterson loved their son and they just needed a little time apart. It wasn’t the first time one of the band had run away from home, for a night or two or thirty, but for some reason, with them being on the  _ edge _ of something great, it felt momentous.

“Jingle bells, Batman smells, Robin laid an egg,” Reggie sang as he started pulling the tangle of string lights and misc decorations he had snuck into the tote out of it and laid them around him. “Something something something, jingle all the way.”

“I don’t think those are the lyrics.”

Reggie looked up from a  _ particularly _ knotted knot and smiled at the figure standing in the doorway. “Oh hey Luke,” he said, before his own words caught up to him. “Wait Luke! No! You can’t be here!”

Luke scoffed, but he had a small grin on his face that Reggie hadn’t seen since Luke had thrown his bike against the side of the garage and burst in with his guitar and a single bag. “What do you mean I can’t be here? It’s the studio.”

Reggie quickly tried to hide the tub of decorations with his body, even if it was pretty unsuccessful. Luke, however, just stood in the doorway looking as relaxed as ever.

(Reggie envied him, sometimes, for that.)

“What exactly are you doing?” Luke asked, walking closer. 

Reggie, officially, started to panic. “I have  _ absolutely _ no idea what you’re talking about Luke, I’m just here. In the studio. Uhhh tuning my bass! Yeah I’m tuning my bass.”

“You’re bass is all the way over there,” the other boy said, pointing to Reggie’s favorite corner of the garage where he, indeed, chose to keep his guitar. “What are you hiding?”

“ _ Hiding _ ? I’m not hiding anything,” he replied as he started scooting backwards as Luke started stalking (that makes him sound like an animal and in that case Reggie would be the prey but he’s not a prey animal, okay?) “I’d never hide anything from you-“

While moving along the floor, Reggie felt himself slowly be tangled in the mishmash of wires that were strewn about the studio  _ and _ the few sets of Christmas lights he had managed to untangle by that point. He felt himself fall, more than he realized that he was falling, and as he fell, the tub, too, was knocked onto its side.

Spilling everything out across the garage.

The boy laid on the floor, staring directly at a small crack that he didn’t know was in the foundation and thought he should probably tell Bobby about it soon or else they’d need to get another carpet to cover it up, and doing anything at all that he could think of to not look at Luke.

He had  _ failed _ his mission.

Luke, who had walked over by that point, kneeling next to the overturned tote that Reggie was still holding on to as if it hadn’t just spilled and stuff hadn’t just rolled everywhere. (Was that an ornament under the couch?? He didn’t even know he had _grabbed_ an ornament!)

“Hey Reg,” he started, cautiously. “What’s all this?” 

Reggie looked up to see that the other boy was holding a small wreath that, at one point, his mom had placed on their mailbox when Reggie was younger. It was bright green with a big, red bow that was almost bigger than the wreath itself.

“If I say it’s nothing, can we just forget about it?” Reggie asked with a sigh as he pushed himself back into a sitting position.

Luke ignored him and turned the little wreath over in his hands before looking at the rest of the mess that had spilled out.

“Are you trying to decorate?” He asked, finally, as he set the wreath aside. Luke turned to him and Reggie felt his cheeks start to heat up (was it his normal, red face or was it something else? Hannah Martin had blushed one day when Luke had looked at her, was this what that was? Did guys even blush?) as he let out an awkward laugh.

“I mean, yeah, I guess,” he replied, sheepishly. He bent over and reached for the end of the string of Christmas lights and started working at undoing the knot again. “It’s almost Christmas and, I dunno, the studio needed some cheer. It’s different when we’re all just practicing, but you’re  _ staying _ here, and-“

“You did this for me?”

Luke was so  _ earnest _ in a way that Reggie had never heard that his head  _ immediately _ shot up, making eye contact with the other boy for the first time since he came into the garage.

“Well yeah,” he replied, shrugging. “I’d do anything for you, Luke. You know that.”

The two of them sat in silence for a long moment. Reggie, awkwardly, fiddled with the knots in the lights but probably ended up making an even bigger mess than what they had originally been while Luke sat there and stared at him, never once looking away.

Jeez, way to give a guy a complex _Lucas_.

Eventually, Luke let out a shaky sigh and smiled. He reached out and grabbed the mess of wires from Reggie and started undoing them himself, working extra hard to get out the knots that Reggie, himself, had made.

He  _ beamed _ brighter than the star they put on the tree in Downtown LA as he stood up and started grabbing at the other decorations and putting them around the garage.

He draped tinsel around Alex’s drum kit, he put a tree skirt around each of the microphones (he couldn’t fit a tree in the tub and  _ definitely _ couldn’t have carried it himself even if he had, maybe he should start hitting up the gym with Luke and Bobby), and even hung up the little wreath that used to hang on his mailbox on the front door of the garage.

By the time he was finished, Luke had unraveled all of the lights (which was impressive, really, because it was  _ a lot _ ) and passed him a set to hang up. Between the two of them, they managed to string them all around the studio, casting it in a mix of rainbow and warm white lights.

Reggie stood, proudly, with his hands on his hips as he looked at the result. It wasn’t perfect, but for what he had had, it looked  _ great _ . Once the final set of lights went up, he had even thought about moving into the studio for the holidays as well.

Then Luke wouldn’t be alone.

As he turned to the older boy to ask if that was a good idea (which he would probably agree because Luke? Liked to cuddle. He was like an octopus when he was asleep,) Luke was standing still, holding a ball of leaves with little white berries by a small, red ribbon.

“Oh yeah!” Reggie said. “I didn’t realize I had grabbed that! Do you think we could trick Bobby and Alex into kissing? I think Alex would  _ punch _ him and-“

“Or we could use it,” Luke replied, holding it in the air above his head. He turned to Reggie and  _ smirked _ and, Reggie had seen that look on his face before.

He had seen it when the other boy had asked Melissa Dwyer to homecoming freshman year as the girl giggled into her oversized sweater sleeves and he had seen it as he finessed his way into playing at Holly Lytle’s mom’s book club and he had seen it directed at Alex a few months ago before the two started acting weird at each other.

Oh.

Reggie felt himself flush, fully, at the look as Luke’s smirk only got bigger in the silence. He reached a hand up and rubbed the back of his neck, anxiously.

“Oh, well, I mean- sure? We can?” Reggie replied. “I didn’t even realize I had brought it but if  _ you _ want to-“

Luke chuckled. “Oh, I do.”

The frontman  _ stalked _ across the garage, again, like he had down earlier but, instead of backing up this time and knocking something  _ else _ over, Reggie stood still. Luke still dangled the ball of mistletoe over his head as he came closer, only moving it to be directly over then when he had reached Reggie, wrapping his hand around the back of his neck.

Reggie could feel his calloused fingers at the base of his skull and shivered at the feeling, only to see Luke’s smirk grow bigger.

“Well?” Luke asked. “Are you gonna kiss me?”

Never the one to leave a friend hanging, Reggie closed the distance between them. He brought a hand up and clutched at the front of Luke’s shirt (one with  _ actual _ sleeves this time thank  _ God _ Alex had taken away his scissors) and held it tightly.

He felt Luke’s hand rest on his waist, pulling him closer, and he could help but smile into the kiss, before he pulled away. 

“Merry Christmas,” he whispered, softly. They were as close together as two people could be. Luke licked his lips and Reggie  _ felt _ it before the other boy moved back in. Both of Reggie’s hands wrapped around the other boys neck as he was kissed more thoroughly than he had  _ ever _ been in his entire life.

Reggie Peters may have failed his mission, but his consolation prize was pretty okay. AND he made Luke happy, which was the biggest win.

  
(And seeing Alex punch Bobby the next day when he was tricked into a kiss felt like the icing on the cake.)  
  



End file.
